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| Type | Private company limited by shares |
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| Founded | 12 December 2005 |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
| Area served | Ireland |
| Key people | President and Chief Operating Officer (UPC Broadband) Gene M. Musselman, Robert Dunn, CEO of UPC Ireland, Shane O'Neill,Liberty Gobal, Chief Strategy Officer |
| Industry | Communications |
| Parent | Liberty Global |
| Website | upc.ie |
UPC Communications Ireland Limited, which trades primarily under the brand name Chorus NTL, is Liberty Global Europe's operation in Ireland. It is part of the UPC Broadband division of Liberty, UPC being an abbreviation of that company's previous name, United Philips Cable. It owns almost all of the cable operations in Ireland including those in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. UPC was due to replace NTL and Chorus on customer bills issued from 2007-10-21, however a full rebrand appears to have been delayed until 2009. [1]. It acts as a provider of television services, broadband, and telephone services.
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Services
The main product offered by UPC's is cable and MMDS ("wireless cable") television services, in analogue, and SD and HD digital formats, using DVB-C encrypted using Nagravision. While regions formerly part of NTL has switched off its analogue MMDS, ones of Chorus have yet to do so on its far more extensive network. Digital is now available in the vast majority of areas, with the Cork cable network becoming the first in the Republic of Ireland to become digital-only. In addition, the company offers broadband internet services using the EuroDOCSIS standard as well as a VoIP-based telephone service using PacketCable. On 14 August 2007, UPC launched a personal video recorder, the UPC Mediabox, in ex-NTL areas, subsequently rolled out to other areas.
On August 5, 2009 UPC launched HDTV in the Republic of Ireland [2][3]. Channels available include international broadcasters BBC HD, Discovery HD, Eurosport HD among others. From early 2010 the roll-out of UPC's video-on-demand and catch up tv services already available on other UPC services across Europe will be introduced in the Republic of Ireland[4].
History
Main articles: NTL Ireland and Chorus Communications
Liberty Global and its predecessors UGC Europe and Tele-Communications Inc have had shareholdings in Chorus Communications and its predecessor, Princes Holdings (Irish Multichannel), since the company's formation in the early 1990s. Originally a joint venture with Independent News and Media, IN&M sold its shares to Liberty in 2004. In May 2005, NTL agreed to sell its Irish operations NTL Ireland (previously Cablelink) to Liberty Global. Morgan Stanley held the shareholding until Competition Authority approval was obtained. This occurred in December 2005 and UPC Ireland came into being on 12 December 2005.
Integration of NTL and Chorus
Since then, the company has been integrating the NTL and Chorus operations behind the scenes, although both brands have been maintained. In early 2006, a single management team was assigned to both companies. In December 2006 NTL's customer service department closed, and customer service was transferred to Chorus in Limerick. In January 2007, billing for both companies was transferred to a new system. On 22 March 2007, Chorus changed its digital cable line-up to match NTL Ireland's line-up, and both platforms now use the same EPG numbering. The MMDS line-up is still largely unchanged.
Branding wise, on 5 September 2006 NTL's website was changed to the same design as Chorus i.e., itself based on UPC Netherlands' website design at the time. 25 January 2007, NTL Ireland updated the electronic programme guide software to remove the NTL logo and all mention of the NTL name. However the UPC name has not replaced it, the areas which contained the NTL logo simply having been left blank. The colour scheme is still NTL's. From 31 January 2007, NTL and Chorus began advertising jointly, although the adverts were simply the ongoing campaign from NTL with the Chorus logo added to them. On 4 June 2007 @ntlworld.ie e-mail addresses switched to @upcmail.ie.[5] The new UPC Mediabox set top boxes (STBs) which contain a hardrive based digital video recording system are fully UPC branded (albeit with the original UPC logo rather than the current lowercase design) and come with a much enhanced EPG. These are being rolled out on both the ex NTL and Chorus cable networks. From 2008, the old Pace STBs supplied by NTL Ireland (and originally designed for NTL UK) are being replaced with new Pace STBs designed for UPC, also branded "UPC Mediabox" but without the hard drive/recording capabilities.
In a Sunday Business Post article on 11 February 2007, UPC Ireland's marketing manager revealed that the rebrand was due to take place no later than May 2007. This did not occur, although the continuing ownership by Virgin Media of the NTL brand means that it is likely to occur in the near future. On 16 May 2007 UPC Netherlands introduced a new UPC logo, which is due to be rolled out across UPC's European subsidiaries. It is likely that this will replace the Chorus and NTL logos. From July 2007, all UPC advertising began bearing a composite logo reading "Chorus NTL - a UPC company".
On 10 June 2007 UPC announced its takeover of one of the remaining small Irish operators, Clane Cable Systems. This will give it an extra 2000 customers. The network will be run as part of NTL Ireland.
During late September and early October 2007, Chorus and NTL included a leaflet with their bills explaining that a rebrand would occur on 21 October. That did not happen, however, on 30 October 2007, the NTL Ireland and Chorus websites were merged into a single website, although the composite Chorus NTL logo is used on it rather than the UPC logo. In November 2007, NTL Business was rebranded UPC Business, making it the first part of the company to officially adopt the UPC name.
On 29 April 2008, UPC's former Cork Communications cable network, latterly part of Chorus, became the first cable network in the Republic of Ireland to switch to digital, with the analogue signal (except for the Irish terrestrial channels) switched off.[6]
On the first of July new customers where being connected to new higher speeds. The increase in speeds only being announced a few days beforehand.
Future
Silicon Republic reported[7] on 30 April 2009 that UPC is planning to introduce 120Mb/s broadband to residential customers in 2010. The upgrade project is codenamed Fibre Power.
Criticism
Chorus NTL has been repeatedly reported as providing sub-standard customer service in the Irish media; indeed threads have appeared on various bulletin boards, in some cases running into thousands of replies, complaining about the service. Nonetheless it is widely accepted on said fora that the service quality and variety in terms of broadband is among the top performers in Ireland. Only the former state body, Eircom can match its availability but the fastest consumer product they currently offer is 7.6Mb compared to UPC's 20Mb. .[8][9][10][11][12]
NTL/Chorus Digital EPG
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References
- ^ UPC Ireland information leaflet on change of names
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2009/08/05/upc-ireland-introduces-hd/
- ^ http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2009/08/05/upc-ireland-introduces-hd/
- ^ UPC Ireland - Homepage
- ^ [2]
- ^ http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/12855/business/upc-is-building-a-120mbps-next-gen-broadband-network
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch/2008/01/07/yet-more-problems-with-ntl/
- ^ http://www.rte.ie/news/primetimeinvestigates/
- ^ http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-news/local-news/ntl-under-fire-for-poor-customer-service/
- ^ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/1213/1229035645993.html
- ^ http://crapserviceireland.com/2008/05/23/chorus-ntl-upc/
External links
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